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Friday, September 23, 2016

LinkedIn adding new training features

LinkedIn
wants to become more useful to workers by adding personalized news feeds,
helpful messaging “bots” and recommendations for online training courses, as
the professional networking service strives to be more than just a tool for
job-hunting.

The
new services will arrive just as LinkedIn itself gains a new boss — Microsoft —
which is paying $26 billion to acquire the Silicon Valley company later this
year.

LinkedIn
said the new features, which it showed off to reporters Thursday, were in the
works before the Microsoft takeover was announced in June. But LinkedIn CEO
Jeff Weiner said his company hopes to incorporate some of Microsoft’s
technology as it builds more things like conversational “chat bots,” or software
that can carry on limited conversations, answer questions and perform tasks
like making reservations.

Chat
bots are a hot new feature in the consumer tech world, where companies like
Facebook, Apple and Google are already racing to offer useful services based on
artificial intelligence. As a first step, LinkedIn says it will soon introduce
a bot that could help someone schedule a meeting with another LinkedIn user, by
comparing calendars and suggesting a convenient time and meeting place.

The
new bot will be part of an online messaging service that LinkedIn is gradually
expanding to make it easier for users to communicate without opening a new
screen or switching to email.

LinkedIn
is also adding more personalized features to its news feed, where members can
see articles and announcements posted by their professional contacts. A new
“Interest Feed” will offer a collection of articles, posts and opinion pieces
on major news events or current issues.

While
many people already turn to Facebook, Twitter or individual news sites for
similar updates, LinkedIn managers suggest their feeds will be more tailored to
each user’s professional interests, by a combination of human editors and
computer algorithms. Similarly, LinkedIn says it’s begun using the online
training resources of its Lynda.com educational subsidiary to make personalized
recommendations for online courses that augment each user’s current skills or
career interests.

The
new features are the latest additions LinkedIn has made to its core service in
recent years — for example, by inviting prominent people and ordinary members
to write their own articles or essays for the site.

LinkedIn
Corp. makes most of its money from fees that job recruiters pay to use its
database of more than 450 million members worldwide. But it wants to keep
members engaged so they check in regularly and keep their profiles updated.
Weiner and other executives say they want to make the site useful for more than
just job-hunting.

The
idea is to “help members be more productive and successful in what they’re
trying to do,” said LinkedIn vice president Ryan Roslansky in an interview.

LinkedIn
has measured an increase in routine visits to its website and mobile apps over
the last year, Roslansky said, even after the company cut back on the volume of
email notifications that it sends to members. It did so, he acknowledged, after
members complained they were getting too many emails.

Microsoft
Corp., meanwhile, wants to augment its own workplace software with LinkedIn’s
stockpile of information about its members’ job histories and professional
contacts. It may combine LinkedIn’s data, for example, with online programs
that Microsoft sells to businesses for managing sales, hiring and other
back-office functions.

Weiner,
who is expected to continue running LinkedIn as a semi-independent subsidiary
of Microsoft, said the two companies are working on ways to integrate some
services. But he said he wasn’t ready to disclose more details.